SEVEN people were injured in a drive-by air rifle shooting in Stafford – and police are appealing for help to trace the offenders.

Several of the victims were shot in the face and one man was treated at Royal Stoke University Hospital for his facial injury.

The victims were aged between 14 and 62 and were shot at by offenders using an automatic air soft rifle, possibly a Remake G363 Rifle in Camo Colour, firing white plastic pellets.

It is believed four men were in the black Vauxhall 5-door Corsa, which travelled from the Silkmore Road area to Bodmin Avenue in Weeping Cross, and the man believed to have been firing the rifle – the front seat passenger – is described as having a ginger/brown beard.

All four men were described as white, with dark hair, and aged in their late teens.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “The incident occurred between 8.15pm and 9pm on Sunday October 8.

“The car initially travelled from the Silkmore Road area where a 47-year-old man was shot. It then continued up Radford Bank where a further two men, aged 54 and 62, were shot at near to the Aldi supermarket.